Content marketing has become a massive element of the broader digital promotion landscape. This form of promotion is based on the proliferation of engaging content, rather than clear marketing material, with 73% of content marketers emphasizing social media as a vital limb of the format. With this in mind, along with the rising demand for personalised content, user-generated content (UGC) has become increasingly used as the internet has evolved.
User-generated content marketing puts promotion in the hands of your customers, encouraging them to create DIY content including your products or services. When pulled off effectively it can spread your brand’s influence far and wide, reaching new audience members you might have never been privy to otherwise. This piece will explore the benefits of user-generated content campaigns, highlighting some successful high-profile examples and offering some tips on how to pull off your own successful campaigns.
Advantages of user-generated content
While paid social media marketing is essential and time-honoured, user-generated content and social media go hand in hand. Some of the primary benefits of this strategy include:
- Free content generation. Having pre-existing customers create content provides your business with a wealth of usable assets, without having to invest an extra penny.
- Inherent engagement fuel. The point of content marketing is to have potential customers engage with your brand. By encouraging generation, you have your existing customers actively engaging with the brand, while sharing this engagement with friends, inviting them to engage as well.
- Creating a sense of community. Building a brand is largely about building a dedicated audience – by inviting your audience to share their own experiences, you’re helping to craft the community needed for sustainable custom.
- It offers product/service insights. Analysing trends in UGC is a great way to get a better understanding of how customers feel about what you’re providing them with – it could even reveal new uses or purposes for your goods that you weren’t aware of.
- User creativity. You might be surprised at how creative and intelligent your customer base is. One or more of your customers could end up creating a piece of content that goes viral, expanding the campaign even further.
Putting content generation in the hands of your customers is a great way to spread the word while strengthening your understanding of your position in the market.
Tips for effective user-generated content campaigns
If you’re going to encourage a user-generated content campaign, there are some important considerations to make. One is building a dedicated user-generated content platform that pulls together contributions from all the different channels where content is posted.
It’s also vital to set clear criteria for the content, as well as carefully monitoring once it’s out – this ensures that it always aligns with your ethos and company values (at least before you promote it). Finally, offering some sort of prize or incentive is a great way to generate more content and pieces of a higher quality level.
Examples of successful user-generated campaigns
If you’re struggling to see how this strategy could work for you, just direct your attention to some of the most successful user-generated content campaigns enacted by big brands, such as:
Apples ‘Shot on iPhone’ Campaign – This campaign puts the best photos shot on iPhones under the spotlight, drawing attention to photographers who use Apple technology. It creates masses of high-quality promotional content, while also giving back to the most talented sharpshooters within the brand’s customer base.
ASOS ‘Looks Good On You’ – Also known as ‘As Seen On Me’, this is a section on ASOS’s website that allows users to live out their modelling dreams. By tagging the brand on social media in a photo when wearing the clothes, customers are displayed on the site with their handles displayed.
LEGO Ideas – This is an ingenious campaign from the toy titan, putting customer creativity front and centre. LEGO fanatics are tasked with creating a unique brick-built concept, which will become a sellable branded product set if supported by enough fellow fans and approved by in-house experts.
As stated, user-generated content is no substitute for traditional paid marketing and in-house content marketing, however, it can have a hugely positive impact when done right. Now it’s up to you to use your own creativity to inspire the contributions of your customers!
